I thought that because I had gone to an international high school in Beijing and spent a lot of my free time around Americans, there would be little in the way of culture shock waiting for me once I came to the States.
I was wrong.
The first time I went to a movie theater in New York, I ordered my usual two large cups of coke, one for me and the other for my friend. The salesgirl immediately grabbed two small popcorn buckets and walked off to fill them.
“I ordered coke, not pop—” My complaint caught in my throat as she started filling the popcorn buckets with coke. Only then did it occur to me that the small “popcorn buckets” were in fact large drink cups.
I usually finish the large cokes in Chinese theaters during the first half of the movie. I only finished about a quarter of the large coke in New York by the time the movie was done. My friend finished half of his.
I thought to myself that maybe I was just not used to America. Maybe with more time I’ll adapt and be able to drink more coke. Maybe not.
Below is a size comparison, the one on the left shows coke sizes in China, the one on the right shows coke sizes in the United States:
Looking at this picture, I think I can be forgiven for thinking I ordered popcorn.
我原以为我已经在北京上了国际高中，又在美国各地度过了很多休闲时间，那么当我来到美国时，应该没有什么文化冲突。
但是我错了。
在纽约我第一次去电影院，像平时一样我买了两个大杯可口可乐，一个给我自己，一个给我的朋友。女售货员立即抓起两个小桶，我以为她要去装爆米花。
“我要的是可乐，不是爆米花，”我马上抱怨道。当女售货员用我眼前的爆米花小桶盛满可乐时，我才意识到我看到的爆米花小桶其实就是大号的饮料杯。
在中国，每个电影的上半场我通常喝光一大杯可乐，但这一次在美国纽约的电影院，整场电影，我只了喝了大约四分之一杯，我的朋友也只喝了大约半杯。
我心想，也许我还不是很适应美国的一切。时间久些，我会更适应这儿的，包括我可以喝更多的美国可乐。
下面是杯子尺寸大小的比较：左边的是中国，右边的是美国可乐饮料杯的各种型号。
看到这些图片，我想你们可以理解为什么我当初以为我买了爆米花。